Retail prices of loose and packaged wheat flour have risen in Dhaka over the past month, while broiler chicken, eggs and farmed fish remain stuck at high levels. Vegetable prices are broadly unchanged. The picture emerged on Thursday from a round of Mohammadpur Krishi Market, Town Hall Bazar and Moghbazar kitchen market and conversations with buyers and sellers.

The state Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) records a rise of Tk 3 a kilo for loose atta and Tk 5 a kilo for loose and packaged maida over one month. Retailers put the increase higher: loose atta has gone from Tk 45 to Tk 50 a kilo, and loose maida from Tk 55–60 to Tk 65–70. A two-kilo packet of branded maida now sells for Tk 160–170, or Tk 80–85 a kilo, against Tk 70–75 a month ago.

Humayun Kabir, a grocer at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, said a 50-kilo sack of maida that cost him Tk 2,500 went up to Tk 2,800 last week. Prices had risen at the wholesale and dealer level, he said, so retailers had raised theirs in turn.

Citing dearer flour and other raw materials, bakery owners raised the price of buns and other products last Saturday. On Tuesday Commerce Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir met the sector's trade leaders; the meeting decided to verify production and marketing costs of bakery goods, and the traders agreed to hold off the increase on bread and biscuits for now.

There is no relief in poultry. Broiler chicken sold on Thursday at Tk 190–200 a kilo, Tk 20 more than six weeks ago and well above the Tk 140–150 seen earlier. Sonali chicken fetched Tk 340–360 a kilo and hybrid or colour-bird Sonali Tk 300–330. A dozen brown farm eggs cost Tk 150, white ones Tk 10 less — the same as a month and a half ago.

Sellers attribute the stalemate to supply. Floods, heavy rain and heat over the past five to six months cut the number of laying hens and broilers on many farms, they said, leaving an overall shortfall that keeps prices from easing. Broiler prices normally swing week to week; this time they have held at one level for about six weeks.

Fish is equally firm. Rui of two and a half to three kilos sold at Tk 400–420 a kilo and katla at Tk 420–440. Farmed pangas fetched Tk 250–300 depending on size, tilapia Tk 250–280 and pabda Tk 400–450. Until farm supply recovers, traders expect the squeeze on both producers and consumers to continue.

Source: Prothom Alo